So over the last few months BELLTECH has been putting on some unique events in the little city of Whangarei. Kindly hosted at The Old Stone Butter Factory. See the BELLTECH BEATS page for videos! 

#LOUD's second gig is #LOUD Live - a place where teen bands can come and have a go on a proper sound system under cool lights! You can see some of the shots and a video below: or Tech Specs!

On the technical side BELLTECH provided:

LIGHTING:

• LED Par Cans
• A couple of LED moving lights with patterns and cool prism effects
  
• LED's controlled by the Theatrelight Nova 36 (A beautifully easily lighting desk anyone could use)
  
• Movers controlled by Chamsys MagicQ software

SOUND:

• 2 x EV Double 18" Subwoofers
• 2 x EV 15" Tops
  
• 2 x EV 12" Tops as foldback monitors
  
• Allen & Heath QU16 Digital Mixer
• 3 x Shure SM58 vocal mics
• 2 x Digital Reference instrument mics
• 3 x Samson DI's

OTHER:

• Belltech provided 6 pieces of our adjustable height staging
• Come along to our next #LOUD Live gig on October 24!!! Otherwise see you at our #LOUD Sounds gig on the 10th. Let's get Whangarei pumping!

BELLTECH is super proud to be behind the cool new umbrella #LOUD. We are kicking off the event calendar with #LOUD SOUNDS which is a teen dance party for 13-18s (although the limits aren't set in stone!). We have a young, local up-and-coming Dj - Cabes - who'll be cranking out the latest and greatest with a nice selection of Top 40, dance, dubstep and party classics.

On the technical side BELLTECH will be providing:
LIGHTING:

• Lots of LED Par Cans
• A handful of LED moving lights, both wash fixtures and profiles
• LED's controlled by the Theatrelight Nova 36 (so they can be flashed easily)
  
• Movers controlled by Chamsys MagicQ software

SOUND:

• 4 x EV Double 18" Subwoofers
• 2 x EV 15" Mids
• 1 x EV ZLX 12P for DJ monitor
• Mixing gear to be supplied by Cabes
• Soundcraft EFX8 Mixer (to keep our main speaker levels even)

A/V:

• 2 x 50" Panasonic LED TV's (one for awesome visuals and one for photos)

This is gonna be an awesome night!!!

Here we go again, the biggest and bestest dance show at Whangarei Girls High School to date. After successfully lighting this show over the past few years, I am thoroughly looking forward to this next installment.
I've been told every time now to try and use as many of the school's lights as possible - and I probably could. I would also be limited to 2 colours per side which has a severe lack of impact in regards to dance lighting. The reason why I love dance so much is because of the side lighting - it creates the most wonderful textures on the skin and costumes; it tells a story. This is why it is important for me to use LED lighting, the possibility of hundreds of different colour combinations from each side, on top, on the back wall and wherever else needs an extra kick of light.
Currently controlled by one of the latest Theatrelight desks, it makes it so easy to grab each light and adjust the colours. For all of the main lighting I use 3 channel mode for colour mixing, and 7 channel mode for effect lighting to add in strobes or colour fade, depending on the piece.
This year I can only imagine the effort the girls are making to make this show a success. Normally restricted to 2 x DB 12" Speakers for music playback, this time I'm going to chuck in a couple of Subs and make this show really jump.

Whangarei's old recycling centre on Pohe Island has been transformed into a storybook. Not just the tale of The Pied Piper, but also the nostalgic stories we all grow up with; the way we look at our town and our people. The mixed cast of kids and young adults have brought alive an old tale but also a venue you wouldn't normally look twice at, for this is an ex waste management facility.

Walking into the space the first time is always an interesting experience. A large, empty area full of potential (and bird deposits!), we had plenty of ideas of where things could go. There were  I-beams to hang from, but with limited inventory and budget the decision was made to use 90deg scaff clamps and T-bars from the top of the seating block, making it easier for focusing lights and access during the show season.

The power was a single 16A 3 Phase outlet, which was replaced with a 32A 3 Phase outlet by a very generous local electrician. This was perfect for NYT's Theatrelight 12-Pack dimmer, which hosts thirteen 1kW Fresnels, seven 800w cyc floods and a lone 1kW Colortran 30deg zoomspot (bulb still works! Amazing!) controlled by a Theatrelight Nova 24 desk. I love these desks for this sort of work. Theatrelight will always be my first choice for desks for small shows and their dimmers are usually hard to fault. Proud to support NZ!
With a diverse range of scenes and limited gel selection, open-white works a treat for front-light and side-light while a 152 gel takes care of the city lights on the scenery.

For this show we are graced with the presence of young Stan Hallet-Pullen and Maeve Adair as lighting and sound operators. They both have caught theatre fever though seem rather relaxed at the helm.

Despite the small challenges this is a great show to start the year off and proud to say I'm from Whangarei.